Posted
by
Hemoson Monday March 07, 2005 @10:45AM
from the great-game dept.

flyboy writes "In a similar vein to the remakes of the Origin's Ultima series games reported in 2001 and 2004 a group of Wing Commander fans has remade Wing Commander: Privateer. Unlike the Ultima remakes, the Privateer remake is finished at version 1.0 with 3d graphics and the whole storyline. For the new kids on the block, WC:Privateer was a much loved trading game similar to the more venerable Elite, which appears also to be in the process of a remake. As a linux fan I was most happy with the remake's use of GPL 3d engine software and release of Linux, Macintosh and Windows versions. See Screenshots here."

Note that Escape Velocity was released for Windows last year. I loved it on the Mac, and on Windows I even paid for it... Although IMO the final scenario (Nova) isn't anywhere near as good as the second (Override) or some of the total conversion add-ons available - probably because Nova is fairly linear. Fortunately, Override was ported to Windows, as well, and is available as a free add-on.

Back in the day when I was just starting to write what later became Escape Velocity, I didn't have a PC, but I did see Privateer at the store and thought it sounded really cool. So, there wasn't really any direct influence, although the phenomenon of parallel evolution applies to open-ended space action/RPG hybrids just like any other game type - certain ideas are just universally fun, so you'll see them crop up repeatedly in different games. Sometimes they cross media types, as evidenced by when I first saw Firefly and said "hey, this is like EV: The Series!";)

Now that I am leet enough to have both MacOS and Windows machines, I should probably download this remake and check it out. It sure looks like fun.

I will say that I loved playing EV back on my old performa. I am thinking about getting a mac mini just so I can play the EV series. Too bad there are not linux ports of the old version. (I know i could play the new Nova under WINE if I really wanted to)

That first EV was the game that started me actually registering shareware. Thanks, man. It was a pleasure.

(Coincidentally, I'm a little bit of a birder, and always identified with kestrels. That was the touch that put it over the top -- all your pirate kestrels, taking down a friend whose game I was overhearing in a shared apartment. Anyone who programs a kick-butt kestrel into something has my vote.)

As far as influences go, though, EV always seemed to me to be a direct descendent of that old BBS game, TradeWars 2002. Without the online aspect, of course. But there were a lot of similarlities in the commerce part of the game.

I admit that I did play a ton of TradeWars when I was in highschool, and some of the inspiration for EV came from saying "gee, wouldn't it be cool if you could actuall see what was going on here?" so there was definitely some influence, at least in a general sense!

Get the Evolutions mod then - more ships, more weapons, the addition of different types of equipment (can't remember off-hand but they help with shield recharging, weapons recharging, heck, even additional armour!) and - the best part - heavier ships move *slower*! It takes longer to move a cargo train around than it does a little fighter. Amazing!

Not necessarily. A properly implemented mouse interface could work just as well. It wouldn't be the SAME as having a joystick, but it would be a matter of using the mouse to its full potential instead of "point and click".

(IE, using the keyboard for direction and mouse for thrust in that direction.)

Nah, EVE Online had it. Those who were around during the age of Elite call it Elite Online--its everything Elite and Privateer tried to be, online, with over 50,000 players on one server (12,800 on at once is the record) in a ruthless, space-based Machiavellian world of politics, crime, scandals, and alliances...

Guess there's an opportunity to make money by supplying many servers to cope with/. load!
New business plan:
* post a privateer story on/.
* wait for servers to melt on the load
* come in your ship filled with additional hardware
* PROFIT!

Just because the original was released twelve years ago doesn't mean everybody played it. I know your sarcasm was an attempt to be funny but not everybody watches or plays something when it comes out, especially if they were just a youngster when it was originally released.

What if you wanted to watch a movie that was released a decade ago? Would you be pissed if somebody gave away the twist in conversation with you just because it was that old.

Yeah that would be what I used to call the "cow" ship you start with. better ships have more visibility, speed, weapons, etc. you can turn off the cockpit in this version (I've been playing it a few months) but its pretty much cheating since that was the biggest reason to do your first upgrade.

I seem to recall that when this came up the first time it was proclaimed that you would have to rewrite practically the whole bloody thing to use CSS throughout, and no one actually responsible for maintaining was interested in using CSS any other way. Further, they were not interested in doing it themselves. Maybe that last has changed or something, but I doubt the rest has. It would be a good thing for everyone, because it would dramatically reduce bandwidth usage.

"It's not 'pinin'! It's passed on! This site is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet it's maker! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't hadn't posted it on slashdot it wouldn't be pushing up the daisies! It's metabolic processes are now 'istory! It's off the twig! It's kicked the bucket, It's shuffled off it's mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-SITE!!"

...there have been "finished" Ultima remakes. two complete Ultima IV remakes for Neverwinter Nights, even. Ultima III was remade for Game Boy Color. And Akalabeth has been known to be remade by programmers on their lunch hours. That's not to even count engine remake projects like exult or xu4...

Ever play that microsoft-published game, wossname... Freelancer? Really linear story, but you can fly all over the place. There's some really interesting stuff out there too, and the game is fairly complex though of course only a tiny bit as complicated as it could be. There are interlinked relationships that cause your actions to have consequences, and the whole thing is pretty darned neat in general.

I wonder how the current owners of Origin Systems Inc, or Chris Roberts, feel about this open source work.

Personally I would feel honoured and accept the compliment that my work is being resurrected ~10 years hence for people to enjoy, but I can't speak for them. How is this handled in the open source community?

Depends, they might get around it by requiring the orignal game to play. I've seen that more than once, people reimplement the engine, and what data that needs updating (like 3D graphics) but all other data is left orignal and thus you have to have the game. Doomsday, a Doom engine, is this way. You can override most included content with your own so you can add new music, 3d models for enemies, etc, but to play the oringal game you still need the orignal WADs.

They do, in fact, require the original game to play the remake. The original game provides all of the data files (ship stats, plotlines, etc.). The remake just provides a modern engine to run it.

To my knowledge, it cannot violate copyright because they do not copy anything; they extend. If anything, the existence of the remake provides a revenue stream for a 12 year-old game that does not run anymore on most PCs. The 'classic' compilations of many of these old games can still be bought in many game stores.

In general, that's not the way most owners feel about people using their work without paying royalties (and rightly so..).

I just wonder why the people doing this excellent project did not put a bit of a twist on the concept to make it their own. Why not set it in the same universe as Privateer, but with a unique story line?

They would be on much better ground with a derivative work then with a complete copy.

That's kind of hard to say. Seeing as Richard Garriot is no longer with Origin and has lost the rights to the franchise (Ultima) to Electronic Arts, he probably would be honored at this point.Especially seeing as how EA has all but killed off Ultima, first by exerting pressure to change the game style (see Ultima 8's arcade jumping) and then rushing an unfinished Ultima to release (Ultima 9). Lastly, the one remaining Ultima product is Ultima Online which has seen two seperate updated versions killed as wel

I hate to say it, but other than a bit of glitz in the combat (The shields look about like they did for WC3, which is a step up on Privateer, at least) this game looks like crap.

I'm not sure how they can characterize this as 1.0, all things considered. I mean, I get graphics corruption just on the launch screen, not to mention the apparent non-function of the game start menu (is there one? I didn't see one, I just randomly hit keys after the last loaded image until something happened)

This just replicates the original game? Are the graphics improved or anything? I've been planning to play this using DOSBox and a download from an abandonware site...what does the remake add, other than the ability for new story lines to be developed?

I just installed it, and its asking me to set some things in the settings. Can someone explain the graphics options and the base options please? I hate when game makers put in all these options, and then tell you absolutely nothing about what they do so you're left wondering what the hell they mean.

Leave the defaults--they're proper for your computer unless you're advanced enough to understand them.
The defaults are carefully tested.
also the manual gives detailed descriptions
if it goes slow, lower the rez and the detail level

This game is actually a Mod based around the http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net] Vegastrike game engine. Vega Strike is completely opensource creation of a Privateer like game. The graphics engine is actually quite advance even if some of its other features are still lagging behind.

Almost guaranteed you have the default DRI drivers from your distribution running. These are fine for 2D but use software rendering for 3D. In order to unleash the 3D hardware power, you need to download and install the proprietary linux drivers from ATI's web site. I have had mixed results with these drivers in the past. Some times they install and work fine and other times they do... strange things and I have to start over again. Read the directions carefully and follow them. Then draw pentagrams an

Most people don't realize that the same problem exists in Windows either. Generic Windows display drivers barely work and games are impossible to play (let alone more then 256 colors) without getting the correct driver from the manufacture.

Just because the PC came preinstalled with the correct drivers and settings, it doesn't mean it worked that way without someone having to do something

Generic DRI drivers might not be the best, but they are light years better then Generic Windows Drivers...

I tried it in Linux and I don't know what you mean, I cranked everything up and to me it's as smooth as it should be. Don't know how to benchmark but from the looks it's constant over 70fps (Can't see any higer:).

It is a Vega Strike [sf.net] mod, hence the link to VS (as the GPL engine) in the/. article.

What the article doesn't really mention is that the Privateer Remake development crew is mostly Vega Strike developers. I believe Privateer is one of the games that inspires the VS developers, although VS itself is a very different game universe. Once the VS engine was in a position to make a Privateer Remake possible then they poured a lot of effort into making it.

I look forward to future releases that should continue to improve upon the graphics 'ported' from the original Privateer and bring the remake further up to date.

You're welcome. On a sidenote: the official BT homepage has a new look! When did that happen. I figured the site with Bram Cohen's photo prominently placed (upper left edge, was it?) would last forever...

I liked it - it had a good clear interface and nice gameplay and a decent storyline with good cutscenes. However my favourite is the expansion pack for privateer. I can't remember that it was called, I only remember rc (I think that's its initials). Anyway for me it came with privateer. It was good.

Not once you buy 32676 fighters to defend your planet! =) Then you could take a few days off of TW without problems!
Or was it 32675?
I know... one of the later releases of TW upped the variable type...